Meeting of the Parliament 05 November 2014
The result of the division is: For 64, Against 37, Abstentions 17.
Motion, as amended, agreed to,
That the Parliament welcomes the rise in the living wage to £7.85 per hour; believes that payment of the living wage should be the expectation, not the exception, and notes that more than 400,000 workers in Scotland still earn less than the living wage; recognises the benefits to both businesses and their staff of paying the living wage; believes that the payment of the living wage in the private sector should be supported and actively promoted; welcomes the fact that the Scottish Government is the first government in the UK to pay the living wage to all staff and those covered by its pay policy, including the NHS; notes the efforts of the Scottish Government to engage with the European Commission on including the living wage as a condition of procurement; further notes that neither the Department of Energy and Climate Change nor the London Assembly includes the living wage as part of commercial tenders; welcomes the success of the Scottish Government in securing the payment of the living wage in public contracts as demonstrated in both the new ScotRail contract and the Scottish Government catering contract, which will benefit 50 staff who were previously paid the national minimum wage; further welcomes the report of the Working Together Review, which was commissioned by the Scottish Government, and the announcement by the First Minister of the establishment of the Fair Work Convention; notes that the Scottish Government is producing new guidance that will help all public bodies focus on how workforce-related matters, including the living wage, can be included in contracts, and shares the concern of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation about the Labour Party’s inappropriate announcement of a minimum wage level for 2020 and that the Labour proposals will, based on estimates of inflation, not even meet living costs in 2020.